Chamber Music Southeast to Perform at the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County

CAMDEN, SC – The Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County (FAC) will present the last concert of the 2016-17 Chamber Music Series on Thursday, April 27 at 7:00 p.m. in the Wood Auditorium with Chamber Music Southeast. Chamber Music Southeast will feature pianist Phillip Bush along with renowned chamber musicians Claire Bryant (cello,) Ari Streisfeld (violin,) and mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway. There will be a cocktail reception prior to the concert starting at 6:00 p.m. with light hors d’oeuvres catered by Ashley’s at McCaskill’s Farms. The Chamber Music Series is sponsored by BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, The Frederick S. Upton Foundation, Tom & Virginia Ann Mullikin, and Van Horn Insurance Agency. Tickets are on sale now and are $30 Adult Advance; $35 Adult Day of; and $15 for students. Tickets are available by phone at 803-425-7676, at the FAC box office located at 810 Lyttleton Street in Camden, or online at www.fineartscenter.org.

About Chamber Music Southeast

Chamber Music Southeast is a brand-new performing collective formed in 2016, pooling the talents of the many outstanding chamber music concert artists that are based in the two Carolinas and Georgia or who have other strong ties to these areas and communities. With a flexible roster of musicians, many of whom hold faculty positions at prestigious conservatories and universities throughout these states, CMSE seeks to present varied chamber music programs to audiences in the region at venues of all types. It seeks to highlight the contributions of the Southeast to the musical life of the US in general by assembling its top-flight chamber music artists together in ever-changing combinations.

About the program

The program highlights, among other things, the versatility of the voice (especially one as beautiful as Rachel Calloway’s) in the chamber music setting, first with the fascinating and compelling arrangements of music from the medieval era (Machaut,) continuing with the very rarely-heard Scottish folk song arrangements that Beethoven did quite late in his career, and on through a delightful song from the musical Peter Pan by our great American composer, Leonard Bernstein. Around these vocal selections, two great chamber instrumental works: the first of the 10 Beethoven violin sonatas, a charming work in his earliest Classical style; and a charming and scintillating piano trio by the great French Romantic composer Camille Saint-Saens, known to many for his famous “Carnival of the Animals” work as well as his famous 3rd “Organ” Symphony.

About the Artists

Phillip Bush is a pianist of uncommon versatility with a repertoire extending from the 16th century to the 21st. His active and unconventional career has taken him to many parts of the globe. He made his Carnegie Hall concerto debut in 2001 with the London Sinfonietta to critical acclaim, replacing an ailing Peter Serkin on short notice in concerti by Stravinsky and Alexander Goehr. He has also appeared as soloist with the Osaka Century Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, Houston Symphony and several other orchestras, in repertoire as far-ranging as the Beethoven concerti and the American premiere of Michael Nyman’s Harpsichord Concerto. A much sought-after chamber musician, Mr. Bush has performed and recorded with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, has appeared frequently on New York’s Bargemusic series, and has performed at the Grand Canyon Music Festival, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Strings in the Mountains (Colorado,) Sitka Music Festival (Alaska,) St. Bart’s Music Festival, Music at Blair Atholl (Scotland,) Cape May Music Festival and many other festivals. He has appeared with the Kronos Quartet and the Miami String Quartet and has also performed with members of the Emerson, Guarneri, Tokyo, Orion and St. Lawrence quartets.

A fierce advocate for contemporary music, Phillip Bush has performed often with many of the New York area’s most renowned new music ensembles, including Bang on a Can All-Stars, Philip Glass Ensemble, Steve Reich and Musicians, Group for Contemporary Music, Newband, Sequitur, Parnassus and New Music Consort. Mr. Bush’s efforts on behalf of contemporary music have earned him grants and awards from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the Aaron Copland Fund, ASCAP, Chamber Music America and the National Endowment for the Arts. His discography as soloist and chamber musician has now reached 40 recordings on labels including Sony, Virgin Classics, Koch International, ASV, New World Records, Denon and many others. In 2012 he was appointed the Research Associate professor of Piano and Chamber Music at the University of South Carolina School of Music.

Violinist Ari Streisfeld has garnered critical acclaim worldwide for his performances of diverse repertoire and has established himself as one of the foremost interpreters of contemporary classical music. Praised for his “dazzling performance” by the New York Times and “scintillating playing” by New York Classical Review, Dr. Streisfeld is a founding member of the world-renowned JACK Quartet. Recent season highlights include performances at Wigmore Hall (London,) La Salle Pleyel (Paris,) Teatro Colon (Argentina,) Suntory Hall (Tokyo,) Bali Arts Festival (Indonesia,) Carriage Works (Sydney, Australia,) Venice Biennale (Italy,) Carnegie Hall, The Library of Congress, The Morgan Library (New York,) the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland,) and the Salzburg Festival (Austria.) He has collaborated with many of today’s most prominent composers including John Luther Adams, Caroline Shaw, Julia Wolfe, Helmut Lachenmann, Matthias Pintscher, Georg Friedrich Haas, Steve Reich, and Salvatore Sciarrino. He has recorded for Mode, Albany, Carrier, Innova, Canteloupe, and New World Records.

Together with his wife, mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway, Dr. Streisfeld formed Duo Cortona, a contemporary music ensemble dedicated to the creation of new works for the unique instrumentation of mezzo-soprano and violin. Recent and upcoming performances include the Resonant Bodies Festival, SONiC Festival, The Stone (NY,) Contemporary Undercurrents of Song Project (Princeton, NJ,) New Music on the Point (VT,) and The Cortona Sessions for New Music (Italy.) He is also a member of Shir Ami, an ensemble dedicated to the performance and preservation of Jewish art music. Dr. Streisfeld frequently collaborates with some of today’s leading ensembles, including Ensemble Signal, Worldless Music Orchestra, and Weekend of Chamber Music.

A passionate and committed music educator, Dr. Streisfeld serves on the faculty of the University of South Carolina School of Music as Assistant Professor of Violin Pedagogy. Dr. Streisfeld holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Northwestern University, and his doctorate from Boston University.

New York City-based cellist Claire Bryant enjoys an active and diverse career as a leading performer of chamber music, contemporary music, and the solo cello repertoire in premiere venues such as Carnegie Hall, Southbank Centre, Suntory Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Barbican Centre. Claire is a founding member of the acclaimed chamber music collective, Decoda – the Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall, and is a regular principal cellist of Trinity Wall Street’s chamber orchestra, Novus NY. Claire has collaborated closely with artists such as Daniel Hope, Anthony Marwood, Emanuel Ax, Sir Simon Rattle, Dawn Upshaw, Ron Carter, and the Weilerstein Trio, Saint Lawrence String Quartet, and the Danish String Quartet. She is a frequent guest artist with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Band and Ensemble Connect, of which she is an alumna.

A native of Camden, Claire is equally engaged as an educator and advocate for inclusive arts in our society. Her international body of work in these areas was recognized in 2010 with The Robert Sherman Award for outstanding innovation in community outreach and music education by the McGraw Hill Companies. She is the director of Decoda’s justice initiative, Music for Transformation, which brings collaborative songwriting workshops into correctional facilities, juvenile justice centers, and high schools in South Carolina and New York. Decoda’s work in the justice system has been widely celebrated, most recently receiving an invitation to perform at the White House on two occasions for events dedicated to the arts and criminal justice reform.

Rachel Calloway is an Adjunct Instructor of Voice at the School of Music at the University of South Carolina. As an internationally recognized leading interpreter of contemporary and modern music, mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway brings versatility and compelling insight to stages worldwide. Her work has been praised by the New York Times for “penetrating clarity” and “considerable depth of expression” and by Opera News for her “adept musicianship and dramatic flair.” Season highlights include performances with Duo Cortona (duos for voice and violin with Ari Streisfeld) on the Resonant Bodies Festival (New York,) the SONIC Festival with JACK Quartet, Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles at the Copland House, the music of John Zorn at National Sawdust, collaborations with Pro Musica Hebraica and the Amernet Quartet at the Kennedy Center, the Kennedy Center Jukebox New Music Series, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with the Oratorio Society of New York in Carnegie Hall, the Contemporary Undercurrent of Song Project (Princeton), and appearances with the new music vocal ensemble Ekmeles.

Rachel has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Series (Green Umbrella,) Berkeley Symphony, Ojai Festival, San Francisco Girls’ Chorus, Ensemble Modern, BAM Next Wave Festival, the PROTOTYPE Festival, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Cal Performances, and Lincoln Center Festival. She has collaborated with the Amernet Quartet, Boston’s Chameleon Arts Ensemble, Dolce Suono Ensemble, and the Biava Quartet. She made her European operatic debut as Mrs. Grose in The Turn of the Screw at Opéra de Reims, Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jovet (Paris) and Opéra de Lille. She has performed with Lorin Maazel at the Castleton Festival in Virginia, Tulsa Opera, Central City Opera, Gotham Chamber Opera, and the Glimmerglass Festival. She has appeared at the Kennedy Center under the auspices of Pro Musica Hebraica.

For tickets or for more information call 803-425-7676 extension 300 or visit the FAC website at www.fineartscenter.org. The Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County is located at 810 Lyttleton Street in Camden. Box office hours are Monday through Wednesday and Friday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. and Thursday 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.

The Fine Arts Center is funded in part by the Frederick S. Upton Foundation and the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding is provided by the City of Camden, Kershaw County, and BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina along with donations from businesses and individuals.